The way the media portrays an incident affects how those reviewing the media regard the incident at hand – whether it is viewed as a “disaster” or not. Hurricane Katrina Slams into Gulf Coast; Dozens Are Dead by Joseph B. Treaster and Kate Zernike highlights Hurricane Katrina as a disaster through victimization of those in New Orleans, naturalization of the hurricane, and by choosing to highlight government aid instead of the privatization of hurricane relief. Hurricane Katrina Slams into Gulf Coast; Dozens Are Dead chose to highlight incidents from the hurricane that in turn portrays the people of New Orleans as victims. This victimization lends to the creation of Hurricane Katrina as a disaster. In order for there to be a disaster, there …show more content…
Portraying the storm as a natural occurrence allows for the fact that human shaping of the environment plays a hand within the storm. With highlighting the storm as a natural disaster, blame is misplaced. The human shaping of the disaster at hand is lost and not acknowledged within the media representation. Within the media representation, there is no talk of how the hurricane came about or what could have caused it. The article simply accepts the hurricane as something natural and always plausible. The opening line of the media representation is as follows, “Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with devastating force at daybreak on Monday...” (Treaster & Zernike, 2005). This is an example within the media representation that exemplifies the naturalization of the hurricane. This opening line implies the assumption of naturalization of the hurricane. Hurricane Katrina Slams into Gulf Coast; Dozens Are Dead does not tread on what caused the hurricane or how society could have played a role in its severity, but simply assumes it as a natural occurrence, which allows for the hurricane to